Katrina Chaos: A Black Eye for U.S. Image?

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Now the slow response to Hurricane Katrina left many Americans asking how such a disaster could happen on American soil. Many people overseas asked the same question and NPR's Jackie Northam reports this morning on what that's done to this country's standing abroad.

JACKIE NORTHAM reporting:

It wasn't long after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast that it became clear the situation there was out of control. Looters rampaged through shops, overcrowded shelters ran short of food and water, and local officials pleaded for help. Robert Hunter, a senior adviser at RAND Corporation and a former ambassador to NATO, says many nations were astonished it took the administration so long to respond.

Ambassador ROBERT HUNTER (Senior Adviser, RAND Corporation): I think there was a sense of shock particularly in the countries that I deal with, Middle East, Europe and East Asia, and that it seemed the United States was no better prepared than, if I may say so, a Third World country.

NORTHAM: In fact, some Third World countries donated aid to the United States. While there was an outpouring of sympathy around the world, there was also a bit of gloating even among America's allies says Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Mr. MAX BOOT (Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations): It's caused a certain amount of schadenfreude around the world where people always like to see somebody powerful occasionally drop to their knees.

NORTHAM: Still, Boot says the poor response to Katrina will not shape the United States' standing as the world superpower.

Mr. BOOT: We still have the most vibrant economy of any major industrialized country. We have by far the world's most powerful military. So the basic fundamentals of American power remains sound despite the problems and embarrassments that we've encountered in dealing with the hurricane in the last few weeks.

NORTHAM: But Gary Schmitt, the executive director of the Project for New American Century, a Washington think tank with close ties to many senior administration officials, says the way the government handled Hurricane Katrina could temper the climate in which foreign policy discussions take place.

Mr. GARY SCHMITT (Executive Director, The Project for New American Century): It certainly makes things a little bit more difficult with our friends when they want to act with us because the public perception will be, `Why are we acting with a country that can't protect its own people?'

NORTHAM: Schmitt says this could prove true particularly when Washington tries to promote democracy in other nations. Thomas Mann, a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution, says Katrina showed there were real problems with social equality, one of the cornerstones of democracy in the United States.

Mr. THOMAS MANN (Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution): Everyone watching television saw that maybe 90 percent or more of the immediate victims were African Americans and clearly people living in poverty. I do think it goes to our ideals, to our values. It may not be fair, but those impressions have a powerful impact on how others think of us as a country to look up to.

NORTHAM: Mann says if we don't have true democracy in America, how can we expect it in places such as Iraq? The RAND Corporation's Hunter says many foreign countries draw a parallel between the ineffectiveness surrounding Hurricane Katrina and the ongoing war in Iraq.

Amb. HUNTER: And they're kind of seen together, lots of money thrown at the problem in Iraq to no good effect, not enough money thrown at investment in American infrastructure and other things and also to no good effect. There's a certain puzzlement about why this important power, the United States, doesn't seem to be able to get some of these things right.

NORTHAM: Still, Hunter has great faith that the US can overcome the setback caused by Katrina if this and future administrations invest in the country's infrastructure and the well-being of its own people. Hunter says America's allies ultimately do not want it to fail because he says if the US appears vulnerable, so, too, do the allies. Jackie Northam, NPR News, Washington.

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